I'm getting to poke at a new Channel/Team. We have internal tagging for our Team that doesn't relate to SO tags but may be identical to them. For example, the history tag on SO specifically says

DO NOT USE THIS TAG. Questions about the history of programming are off-topic. For questions about browser history, use [browser-history] instead. For questions about the JavaScript library, use [history.js]. For questions about the HTML5 API, use [html5-history]. For questions about version control, use [revision-history]. For questions about recalling inputs in an entry box, use [input-history].

Additionally (to make matters more frustrating), while I apparently can edit the tag info, it's confusing because I first tried to highlight greyed-out text without any luck, which caused me to think I couldn't edit it at all. When I just typed in the text area, it works fine... but I don't have the option to "clear" the area, so if I only change the excerpt, the wiki itself is unchanged.

This is what the edit field looks like:

Should tags for Channels be tied to/seeded by the Stack Overflow tags?

If so, can we please have "internal tags" (a different color, perhaps?) that will allow us to use tags the way we use them in our organization, which may be different than how the SO tags are meant to be used?

1 Answer
1

Should tags for Channels be tied to/seeded by the Stack Overflow tags?

No.

The product we're currently calling 'channels' is starting to turn more and more into a term to indicate an isolated environment where it's safe for quite a few rules (even fundamental ones, like laws of Q&A physics) to be quite different than they are for public Q&A, or not exist at all.
- Coming Soon: Stack Overflow For Teams!

This should indicate that there be no correlation between Stack Overflow's outlook and the channel. In fact, they should be disparate. A simple example would be the need for a Q&A to exist which addresses a server feature with no code, such as a broad question asking what the mission statement is for each of the virtual machines in a server. For a team, this is very relevant, for Stack Overflow it is essentially useless and will absolutely never have use.

Furthermore, tag data should be relative to the team that is currently using the Channel for obvious reasons as it would make the data and user lists far more relevant.

Teams needs to support questions which are Too Localized. In this regard, localized tags need to be available. Moreover, broad tags will also need to be available as too localized is just as often broad as it is narrow. Facilitating these types of "safe spaces" requires breaking the link between Stack Overflow and Channels.

"But this makes migrations harder" would seemingly be the argument against this. However, migrations are already going to be problematic anyway, so adding in the small requirement of having them retagged is, in my opinion, tiny compared to the requirement of having them be on topic to their migration target; especially when that target may be a different exchange than Stack Overflow such as Server Fault, Super User, Unix, etc.

If Channels is simply going to be private Stack Overflow, then there is no point in doing it; why would anyone use the private version instead of asking their question at Stack Overflow main where millions of users can answer?

Well, the answer to the latter is in the case of non-public information. If SO can guarantee that a Channel is private, then it would be possible to post company-specific information/data that may not be releasable outside of the company.
– Catija♦Mar 8 '18 at 20:40

@Catija - Obfuscating private information is a small task, and seeing as there have been millions of questions that successfully managed to disconnect their private data from a public presentation, I do not find that a compelling reason to create a completely separate area. The ability to post company specific information/data is not nearly as significant as the ability to leverage the style of data organization and presentation that Stack Overflow provides.
– Travis JMar 8 '18 at 20:44

I think it’s fine to use Stack Overflow’s javascript tag, for example, if you ask questions about JavaScript code in a Channel.
– J FMar 10 '18 at 20:48